. >> first they argue the debt ceiling was their leverage. then they realize politically that was problematic for them. now that we resolved that at least for now although we still have to deal with it down the road, you've got deficit reduction that they perceived to be their leverage through shutting the government down or allowing what both republicans and democrats agree is an unacceptbly large set of spending cuts in the sequester which were designed to incentivize us to sit down. we're not going to be able to deal with this by march 2nd. let's make sure we avoid those cuts. >> absolutely. >> so here's what i think we have to look out for. i was up on the hill testifying this morning, and i'm picking up the following. i think what republicans would like to do is actually cancel the defense part of the sequestration and shift those cuts on to the non-defense side. that must be avoided. look, first of all in my view all these cuts ought to be avoided the way the president was talking about today. but what i just described absolutely must b